Are We Devolving?

[KAmittai]

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about life and it seems like we are devolving. Where are our modern day equivalents of the great minds of the past? I just feel like on the whole in America that everyone is not as smart as they could be. Education is failing us and so are the citizens. Who are we supposed to learn from?
Technology to me just keeps us from actually having to talk to or understand each other any more. Direct human interaction is less today than it has ever been. We have all this technology and what are we really doing with it? Are we actually doing whats in the best interest of the whole anymore? I find people today to be much more rude to you than they think they are. In their mind they are ok. But in public they are a very rude. What do you guys think? Maybe I just live in a town full of assholes?

We’re using it right here!!! Yayyy! This is a good thing to have for everyone to connect in this manner. Sadly the affects it has on us can be drowning out our inner selves. Intuitives will begin to emerge more with the proper encouraging.
Really, we couldn’t ever possibly devolve, were just bombarded by information so there’s a lot of people stuck in that information. We can’t get stuck in our differences. Wake me up with kindness!!!

 

[KAmittai]

We’re using it right here!!! Yayyy! This is a good thing to have for everyone to connect in this manner. Sadly the affects it has on us can be drowning out our inner selves. Intuitives will begin to emerge more with the proper encouraging.
Really, we couldn’t ever possibly devolve, were just bombarded by information so there’s a lot of people stuck in that information. We can’t get stuck in our differences. Wake me up with kindness!!!

Oops.. typo from slang.
Wake EM up***

 

[java]

Well this is an old thread. But I feel that today we are definately devolving. World is total shite. Worst shape it's been in , in a long time. It's too bad cause the world we live in is pretty cool. People may want to chill out a bit. Take a look around. Get to know where they are really at.

Maybe, given how it seems people face more and more mental health issues and other personal problems. At the other extreme, in other parts of the world, there are things like famine and warfare. And then, you have many situations in between.
That said, I don't think the world is devolving. Things could be way worse, and I think we're still doing efforts, collectively, to keep the bag of leaves tied. You will find destructive individuals if you look for them, but as a whole, as a species, I think we're still moving forward.

 

[JustPhil]

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about life and it seems like we are devolving. Where are our modern day equivalents of the great minds of the past? I just feel like on the whole in America that everyone is not as smart as they could be. Education is failing us and so are the citizens. Who are we supposed to learn from?
Technology to me just keeps us from actually having to talk to or understand each other any more. Direct human interaction is less today than it has ever been. We have all this technology and what are we really doing with it? Are we actually doing whats in the best interest of the whole anymore? I find people today to be much more rude to you than they think they are. In their mind they are ok. But in public they are a very rude. What do you guys think? Maybe I just live in a town full of assholes?

I think as a species we are becoming less "smart". I think that that would match with your comment of devolving. I think as a society we now cater to the lowest common denominator too much, and that drags the rest of us down a notch from achieving what we could if we didn't cater to them. Survival of the fittest has become survival of all, and even though it's a grand gesture, it doesn't help the human race in the long term.

We have also become cocooned from the real world. Humans live more and more inside an environment, a bubble, of their own making. Even to the point that we are venturing out less, staying in our homes, and letting our minds be distracted with "entertainment" rather than listening to ourselves, having our own ideas. Looking at homes from where I am over the last 50 years for example. From large front and back yards and smaller houses to larger houses on smaller blocks with no yards, but dedicated enclosed entertainment areas that can be environmentally controlled. TV screens and entertainment systems that take up much of the room, or have their OWN rooms.

We are (generally) I think drawing away from interacting with people to live in a manufactured world that we can control. We get our fix of socialising by connecting on social media, letting others have the fun but by association, having fun from the comfort of our couches. Commenting on posts as we like with impunity, thinking that any slight can be counteracted with a "soz"??? We are more rude, we are more anti social, we are "dumber". We rely on an education system to educate our children, but their main purpose I feel now is to educate our children to become good citizens. That should not be their job, but hell, most of the parents I know are not doing ANYTHING to bring up their children. OK, I know that they are providing the sustenance and shelter and such, but what about the emotional support, the advice, the teaching of values by portraying those values and showing them how to act, how to be polite, how to be mature, how to handle emotions and the ups and downs of life.

The ups and downs of life .. ahh yes .. we all seem to expect that life will run the way we expect it to. Life needs to be perfect, just like all your friends on Facebook. But we are being shown that we are less if our life isn't "perfect", and that even if it isn't, please only let people see the perfect stuff. You live with the downside, only show the upside, because no-one wants to have negative emotions. So much so that we shut those same negative emotions out of everyday life instead of expressing them appropriately.

There are great minds out there, somewhere. But they are snapped up by capitalist corporations hell bent on making dollars, not inventing. In doing so every idea is modified as to how much money it can make as opposed to how good the idea is on it's own merits.

/rant lol

 

[Roses In The Vineyard]

I think as a species we are becoming less "smart". I think that that would match with your comment of devolving. I think as a society we now cater to the lowest common denominator too much, and that drags the rest of us down a notch from achieving what we could if we didn't cater to them. Survival of the fittest has become survival of all, and even though it's a grand gesture, it doesn't help the human race in the long term.

We have also become cocooned from the real world. Humans live more and more inside an environment, a bubble, of their own making. Even to the point that we are venturing out less, staying in our homes, and letting our minds be distracted with "entertainment" rather than listening to ourselves, having our own ideas. Looking at homes from where I am over the last 50 years for example. From large front and back yards and smaller houses to larger houses on smaller blocks with no yards, but dedicated enclosed entertainment areas that can be environmentally controlled. TV screens and entertainment systems that take up much of the room, or have their OWN rooms.

We are (generally) I think drawing away from interacting with people to live in a manufactured world that we can control. We get our fix of socialising by connecting on social media, letting others have the fun but by association, having fun from the comfort of our couches. Commenting on posts as we like with impunity, thinking that any slight can be counteracted with a "soz"??? We are more rude, we are more anti social, we are "dumber". We rely on an education system to educate our children, but their main purpose I feel now is to educate our children to become good citizens. That should not be their job, but hell, most of the parents I know are not doing ANYTHING to bring up their children. OK, I know that they are providing the sustenance and shelter and such, but what about the emotional support, the advice, the teaching of values by portraying those values and showing them how to act, how to be polite, how to be mature, how to handle emotions and the ups and downs of life.

The ups and downs of life .. ahh yes .. we all seem to expect that life will run the way we expect it to. Life needs to be perfect, just like all your friends on Facebook. But we are being shown that we are less if our life isn't "perfect", and that even if it isn't, please only let people see the perfect stuff. You live with the downside, only show the upside, because no-one wants to have negative emotions. So much so that we shut those same negative emotions out of everyday life instead of expressing them appropriately.

There are great minds out there, somewhere. But they are snapped up by capitalist corporations hell bent on making dollars, not inventing. In doing so every idea is modified as to how much money it can make as opposed to how good the idea is on it's own merits.

/rant lol

The way I feel and think about it that the issue isn't introversion but how the post WW2 generations have been socialized coupled with the societal decline that we've all been experiencing. As the old saying goes the proof is in the pudding and the hell of social media is a great example of this like fakebook where people are having to compete for attention ect.

 

[KAmittai]

I think as a species we are becoming less "smart". I think that that would match with your comment of devolving. I think as a society we now cater to the lowest common denominator too much, and that drags the rest of us down a notch from achieving what we could if we didn't cater to them. Survival of the fittest has become survival of all, and even though it's a grand gesture, it doesn't help the human race in the long term.

We have also become cocooned from the real world. Humans live more and more inside an environment, a bubble, of their own making. Even to the point that we are venturing out less, staying in our homes, and letting our minds be distracted with "entertainment" rather than listening to ourselves, having our own ideas. Looking at homes from where I am over the last 50 years for example. From large front and back yards and smaller houses to larger houses on smaller blocks with no yards, but dedicated enclosed entertainment areas that can be environmentally controlled. TV screens and entertainment systems that take up much of the room, or have their OWN rooms.

We are (generally) I think drawing away from interacting with people to live in a manufactured world that we can control. We get our fix of socialising by connecting on social media, letting others have the fun but by association, having fun from the comfort of our couches. Commenting on posts as we like with impunity, thinking that any slight can be counteracted with a "soz"??? We are more rude, we are more anti social, we are "dumber". We rely on an education system to educate our children, but their main purpose I feel now is to educate our children to become good citizens. That should not be their job, but hell, most of the parents I know are not doing ANYTHING to bring up their children. OK, I know that they are providing the sustenance and shelter and such, but what about the emotional support, the advice, the teaching of values by portraying those values and showing them how to act, how to be polite, how to be mature, how to handle emotions and the ups and downs of life.

The ups and downs of life .. ahh yes .. we all seem to expect that life will run the way we expect it to. Life needs to be perfect, just like all your friends on Facebook. But we are being shown that we are less if our life isn't "perfect", and that even if it isn't, please only let people see the perfect stuff. You live with the downside, only show the upside, because no-one wants to have negative emotions. So much so that we shut those same negative emotions out of everyday life instead of expressing them appropriately.

There are great minds out there, somewhere. But they are snapped up by capitalist corporations hell bent on making dollars, not inventing. In doing so every idea is modified as to how much money it can make as opposed to how good the idea is on it's own merits.

/rant lol

So much this!!!

emotional intelligence is definitely a drowning matter comparatively speaking, BUT keeping emotional intelligence means not getting rid of those stuck in it too!! So no, we’re evolving. Not devolving.

 

[Roses In The Vineyard]

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/suicides-among-youth-soar-57-past-decade-social-media-blame

 

[Vict]

It do be like that sometimes.

 

[BingBangBoomHoho]

Yes.

 

[slant]

I don't think so. I'll give a basic framework.

So I've heard many people complain about how people in general are less articulate than they used to be. How people used to read books regularly, and that you will see a stark difference if you compare say jfk's debates to a modern day one.

What you're seeing is not necessarily a denigration. I was listening to a podcast the other day talking about how scientology only collapsed with the rise of the internet.

The turn of the century was the industrial revolution and I would argue since the 1980s we have been experiencing the third wave, or technically speaking called the information age. But I would say it's much more expansive than we realize currently given things that have happened during the pandemic. I think we will see a rapid shift in the next 20 years.

The point being: technology has always come at a cost for humanity. If we were to lose all of our agricultural knowledge, for example, we would be virtually handicapped because humans in the majority of the world don't have hunter gatherer skills. We accept this as part of modern day society and while some subcultures try to cultivate the skills, for the most part it's a non issue.

We are seeing the same thing for information and communication currently. Change is always difficult for humanity and people usually don't realize the merits of the changes as they happen and instead focus on what we are 'losing'.

Plato was real mad about the idea of writing. He thought that people were going to have bad memories and that capturing things in writing would make everyone stupid. You can see some of his point: paper and being able to write things down has expanded human knowledge in such a way that we no longer have to retain everything in our brain.

The same thing had happened with the internet: we now have access to information so easily that we can just Google something, we don't even have to read a book to get that information.

Some people even speculate with kindles and ebooks that eventually books will be written in a sort of shorthand to grab info quickly with social media integration and a level of collaborative editing in real time.

I think that we only progress and that people just like to focus on what's wrong without putting in any effort to find solutions on how to fix these perceived problems. Generally speaking as we progress I believe society becomes better, not worse.